The Hero's Forsaken Princess
Chapter 156: Means of Survival

Chapter 156: Means of Survival

At Zephyra’s Prison Fortress...

Eve felt as though her heart was being crushed right now after seeing Alaric’s condition. The royal physician was treating his wounds.

She slowly approached the prison cell and entered. With his remaining strength, Alaric gazed up to see her.

"Eve..." he uttered, clenching his fists.

He had mixed emotions about this. "You shouldn’t be here. Why are you here?"

Alaric slammed his eyes shut while gritting his teeth.

Eve could no longer hold it. She embraced him in her arms as she started to sob.

"I’m worried about you. I thought I would never see you again..."

Eve buried her face on his chest as she hugged him tightly. Her body was trembling in both fear and relief.

"I’m so glad... you are alive..."

Alaric shook his head. He felt ashamed to face her.

"Forgive me, Eve. I failed you. And now, I put you in danger. I should be the one protecting you. But here you are... saving me."

He couldn’t help but blame himself for his incompetence. He failed to protect his wife over and over again.

"I don’t deserve you..."

Eve shook her head frantically. "No. Don’t say that, Alaric."

She broke the hug and cupped his face. Her eyes were fixed on him. She gently caressed his cheeks.

"You’ve done everything to protect your comrades. Now, it’s my turn to protect you. I’m your wife."

Alaric was against this idea. "They want you. They will take advantage of you, Eve. Where is Gideon? He should take you away from here. Don’t worry about me."

"Don’t be afraid. They can’t touch me. I won’t allow them to exploit me. I will be the one using them," Eve said meaningfully.

"Hang in there, Alaric. You have to recover. I will take you away from this dark prison," she added before planting a soft kiss on his lips.

Alaric kissed her back with passion. He didn’t expect to be reunited with her too soon. He had to admit that he was also scared of not seeing her again. He had conditioned himself to die. Who would have thought Eve would show up to stop his execution?

"I’m so useless..." He lost his confidence. He felt so helpless right now.

"Don’t overthink. You have to take a rest and recover quickly. Our fight is not yet over. It’s just getting started. Remember? You are my sword, Alaric. You have to join me in this battle." Eve tried her best to encourage him. She hugged him once more.

"Yes. I clearly remember. I won’t fail you this time. No matter what your decision is, I will be with you," Alaric said with conviction.

"I will request King Zaraki. I want to bring you to my quarters. You will be able to recuperate there instead of staying here."

Eve momentarily left the prison cell to inform Gideon about her request.

"Can you make it possible, Gideon? Can you please relay my message to King Zaraki and your father, Chancellor Gustav?" Eve requested Gideon.

"Alright. I will do my best. But I think they will take precautionary measures like binding his feet and hands while he is in your quarters. In their eyes, even though Alaric is already wounded, he is still a big threat to them. He won’t be allowed to be free inside the palace." Gideon explained the situation to her, analysing the way his father was thinking.

"I understand. It doesn’t matter to me as long as he is out of prison. I will take care of him personally. They tortured him too much. His body is numb. His muscles are all aching. His cuts are too deep. It will take long before he can fully recover."

Eve could only rely on Gideon’s right now. She was surrounded by her enemies. She didn’t know the motive of her granduncle. For now, she needed to play along and find out what he was planning. Gideon was her best accomplice.

"I have to go and follow up on your request."

Gideon was about to leave when Eve suddenly grabbed his hand.

"Thank you so much for being there with me. Without you, I won’t know what I’m going to do. I owe you a lot."

Gideon could only smile upon hearing those words. "Don’t be too sentimental."

Suddenly, Eve’s expression turned serious.

"Gideon, you don’t have to do this. Chancellor Gustav and Crown Princess Erika are your family. If you continue helping me, you will end up betraying them. Are you okay with that?"

Gideon fell silent, unable to respond to her. He had conflicting thoughts about this. He couldn’t understand his own feelings.

’Do I really need to choose between my family and Eve?’

Chancellor Gustav, his father, was loyal to King Zaraki. Eve wanted to dethrone him, and he promised to help her. This only meant he had to fight his father.

"You don’t have to answer me right now, Gideon. You should think it over. But I can promise you one thing. I will try my best not to shed blood. I won’t kill anyone..." Eve reassured him.

Gideon smiled and nodded. "I’ll keep that in mind."

A few minutes later...

Gideon returned to the prison fortress. Eve was treating Alaric’s wounds when Gideon told her that they could transfer Alaric to her chamber.

King Zaraki made Eve stay in the Pavilion of Princess Esmeralda. Gideon escorted the couple.

"You should take a rest. I’ll come back later. I’ll just have to talk with my sister to catch up with her," Gideon said goodbye to Eve.

When Gideon left, Eve continued tending to Alaric’s wounds until he fell asleep. She lay down next to him, watching over his sleeping figure.

"I almost lost you..." Eve whispered, her fingers gently tracing his face.

"This time, I’ll protect you with my life." She kissed his forehead. She closed her eyes and took a nap while hugging Alaric in her arms.

*****

Meanwhile, in a certain hideout near the capital, Rolando’s group and Caleb’s group continued waiting for Alucard and his men. Rolando received a message from Commander Kevin. They were on their way to meet them.

There was a sullen atmosphere surrounding the team. Everyone was worried about this turn of events.

"Commander, can we still save them?" Miles asked Caleb, his eyes filled with anxiety.

"General Alaric had it rough. Can he survive this? He was barely alive when they brought him to the execution platform earlier," he added, his voice laced with concern.

"He won’t die easily. I believe him! We will survive this," Caleb said, also convincing himself.

"How about Princess Eve? Will they hurt her?" Randolf voiced out.

Everyone fell silent at the mention of Eve’s name.

"Are we wrong to trust Gideon? He is the son of Zephyra’s Chancellor." Caleb tugged his hair tightly. He felt that they committed so many mistakes for this mission.

"He looked so sincere about protecting Princess Eve. I don’t think he is faking it. Let’s believe in him. He won’t let them harm Princess Eve!" Randolf was putting his trust in Gideon.

"If he is indeed on our side, he will do everything to protect Princess Eve and General Alaric," Miles said, expressing his own opinion.

They were still talking when Rolando joined them.

"Dillon and Franco have regained consciousness. You can see them."

Miles was happy to hear that. He immediately rushed to their room to check on them. Randolf followed him from behind.

Meanwhile, Caleb chose to stay and discuss something with Rolando.

"Do you plan to rescue Princess Eve by infiltrating the palace through the secret tunnel?" Caleb asked him.

"Honestly, I don’t have any idea. Since Captain Alucard is back, I know he will do everything to rescue our princess," Rolando spoke up.

"King Zaraki wants something from Princess Eve. She is from a family of Beast Tamers. Among the members of the Goldwyn Royal Family, her mother, Princess Esmeralda, is the only person who possesses this rare ability. Can you confirm if Princess Eve also inherited this power? Does she possess the power of beast taming?"

Caleb was shocked beyond belief upon hearing that. He didn’t know that the Goldwyn Royal Family had the ability of beast taming.

"If I was right, an incident happened where dire wolves tried to attack Princess Eve. But fortunately, nothing bad happened to her. I called it a shocking phenomenon."

Caleb narrated the fight with dire wolves. Alaric told him everything at that time.

Rolando could only sigh deeply as he listened to him.

"This is a big problem. King Zaraki will certainly use Princess Eve’s power to conquer kingdoms. Do you know... we have a legend that Kingdom Zephyra is being protected by a mighty dragon? King Zaraki might believe the legend that a dragon exists in our underground dungeon. He wants to tame the dragon to conquer other kingdoms. He needs Beast Tamer for his ambition to happen."

Caleb was at a loss for words. He finally understood why King Zaraki was hell-bent on searching for Eve’s mother. Zaraki was greedy for power!